The discovery recount for the Unit 4 School Boad race has showed no change from the computer count. Stuckey will now decide whether to pursue a full recount.
More details later.
UPDATE from the County Clerk's blog:
With the caveats below applying today, the redundant recount of 4395 ballots in the Unit 4 school district race showed no change in results.
It's my understanding that Tomlinson, Lockman and Lanesskog were sworn in as new Board members prior to last night's meeting.
From County Clerk Mark Shelden:
As the Election Authority, I supervise the discovery recount. In that capacity, I faciliate the review of ballots and other election materials for the person requesting the discovery recount. We also conduct a redundant hand count of ballots. Nevertheless, my observations are just that; observations. What I say here in no way is binding upon a candidate or a court and is not dispositive.
With those caveats, I can tell you that my observation is that the hand count of ballots in Bondville was the same as the computer count reflected in the final canvass. WDWS was here and interviewed Karl Kennicker. You can listen to them to find out what he is going to do from here.
The Unit 4 Board discovery recount is tomorrow.
There were some questions regarding discovery recounts. I answered a few questions on my County Clerk Blog.
Didn't see this anywhere but the DI:
Champaign County Clerk Mark Shelden has announced that a recount will be held for the Champaign School District's School Board election.
Lynn Stuckey, who was one of seven candidates competing for three spots on the board, finished fourth, leaving her one spot away from being a member of the board.
“By statute, Ms. Stuckey has the right to request that a discovery recount of 13 of the 52 precincts in the Champaign Unit 4 School District,” Shelden said in a press release. “While we are confident that the voting equipment used in Champaign County produces true and accurate results, this process allows us to confirm our beliefs.”
The recount is being held Friday May 1 at 8:30 a.m.
On Election Day, three votes separated Stig Lanesskog and Lynn Stuckey for the third and final spot on Champaign Unit 4 School Board. An additional nine ballots (late arriving absentees and provisional ballots) remained to be counted today. After that counting, Lanesskog is the winner by two votes. I don't know if Stuckey will ask for a recount.
As the Illini Pundit is a political forum, so I would like open a debate on the idea of “Conventional Wisdom” – in this case the accepted concept that a low turnout election (municipal or primary election) is better for a referendum then a high turnout – (state or national). I have seen this statement on Illini Pundit, and heard elsewhere from “experts”, but I wonder just how true this statement is?
Let me start by pointing out that I am at best an amateur politician. I have a great interest in American History which means that I have some knowledge of the American political system – but then again a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I have read on the subject and kept an eye on local politics long before I entered political life.
From experience in walking areas and watching elections, I tend to group voters into two categories – which for the lack of a better term I will class as, “Hardcore” and “Soft-core”.
Hardcore voters vote for a number of reasons – mainly though in my opinion a sense of civic duty – and will be at the polls rain or shine. For example, I consider my 80 year old parents as “hardcore” voters though they can be of any age – as my daughter is also one of them. They read the paper, listen to the radio, ask questions, and study the sample ballot. If you walk door to door they will engage you in conversation and ask questions – especially if they disagree with you.
Soft-core votes vote for the major elections, and may or may not vote on all issues. I have two sisters out of the area – and several nieces in the area – that I consider as “soft-core” voters/ They will usually vote in major election but not always in what they consider to be minor. They will study the major races and when they do vote in the minor races they vote in a “Hobson’s choice” system – they are the voters that will be swayed by ballot placement – voting for the first name that they see.
I looked at the data from Champaign precincts 6 & 7, as well as Tolono 2 as that’s the area covered by the village of Savoy south of Church Street – as well as that of Mahomet precincts 1 to 5. I picked Savoy as they has something to gain in a successful referendum – a new school, I picked Mahomet as they are one of the more conservative areas of the county - and they had a contested election out there for of all things “Fire Trustee’s”. (I never heard radio advertising for such a race before this year.) All figures are from the County Clerks website.
Champaign 6 – 2008 Election
Total Registered Votes 1508
Total Voters 1143
Percentage who voted of whole 75%
Yes on Sales Tax 567 or 54%
No on Sales Tax 469 or 45%
Under votes on Sales Tax 94 or 8.2%
Champaign 6 – 2009 Election
Total Registered Votes 1479
Total Voters 323
Percentage who voted of whole 21%
Percentage of those who voted in 2008 28%
Yes on Sales Tax 197 or 62%
No on Sales Tax 121 or 38%
Under votes on Sales Tax 5 or 1.5%
Champaign 7 – 2008 Election
Total Registered Votes 2073
Total Voters 1634
Percentage who voted of whole 78%
Yes on Sales Tax 891 or 59%
No on Sales Tax 619 or 40%
Under votes on Sales Tax 105 or 6.4%
Champaign 7 – 2009 Election
Total Registered Votes 2094
Total Voters 409
Percentage who voted of whole 19%
Percentage of those who voted in 2008 25%
Yes on Sales Tax 283 or 69%
No on Sales Tax 126 or 31%
Under votes on Sales Tax 0 or 0%
Tolono 2 – 2008 Election
Total Registered Votes 760
Total Voters 579
Percentage who voted of whole 76%
Yes on Sales Tax 273 or 51%
No on Sales Tax 255 or 48%
Under votes on Sales Tax 41 or 7%
Tolono 2 – 2009 Election
Total Registered Votes 769
Total Voters 132
Percentage who voted of whole 17%
Percentage of those who voted in 2008 22%
Yes on Sales Tax 71 or 54%
No on Sales Tax 59 or 45%
Under votes on Sales Tax 2 or 1.5%
Mahomet 1 – 2008 Election
Total Registered Votes 1826
Total Voters 1408
Percentage who voted of whole 77%
Yes on Sales Tax 624 or 46%
No on Sales Tax 729 or 53%
Under votes on Sales Tax 41 or 2.9%
Mahomet 1 – 2009 Election
Total Registered Votes 1822
Total Voters 560
Percentage who voted of whole 30%
Percentage of those who voted in 2008 39%
Yes on Sales Tax 264 or 47%
No on Sales Tax 287 or 52%
Under votes on Sales Tax 9 or 1.6%
Mahomet 2 – 2008 Election
Total Registered Votes 1302
Total Voters 995
Percentage who voted of whole 76%
Yes on Sales Tax 404 or 42%
No on Sales Tax 545 or 57%
Under votes on Sales Tax 32 or 3.2%
Mahomet 2 – 2009 Election
Total Registered Votes 1305
Total Voters 448
Percentage who voted of whole 34%
Percentage of those who voted in 2008 45%
Yes on Sales Tax 212 or 47%
No on Sales Tax 234 or 52%
Under votes on Sales Tax 4 or .8%
Mahomet 3 – 2008 Election
Total Registered Votes 1287
Total Voters 806
Percentage who voted of whole 62%
Yes on Sales Tax 304 or 35%
No on Sales Tax 445 or 64%
Under votes on Sales Tax 56 or 5.7%
Mahomet 3 – 2009 Election
Total Registered Votes 1311
Total Voters 230
Percentage who voted of whole 17%
Percentage of those who voted in 2008 28%
Yes on Sales Tax 104 or 47%
No on Sales Tax 116 or 52%
Under votes on Sales Tax 10 or 4.38%
Mahomet 4 – 2008 Election
Total Registered Votes 1792
Total Voters 1427
Percentage who voted of whole 79%
Yes on Sales Tax 660 or 48%
No on Sales Tax 707 or 51%
Under votes on Sales Tax 48 or 3.3%
Mahomet 4 – 2009 Election
Total Registered Votes 1799
Total Voters 567
Percentage who voted of whole 31%
Percentage of those who voted in 2008 39%
Yes on Sales Tax 296 or 53%
No on Sales Tax 282 or 46%
Under votes on Sales Tax 5 or .9%
Mahomet 5 – 2008 Election
Total Registered Votes 1564
Total Voters 1206
Percentage who voted of whole 77%
Yes on Sales Tax 513 or 44%
No on Sales Tax 650 or 55%
Under votes on Sales Tax 34 or 2.8%
Mahomet 5 – 2009 Election
Total Registered Votes 1545
Total Voters 509
Percentage who voted of whole 32%
Percentage of those who voted in 2008 42%
Yes on Sales Tax 247 or 49%
No on Sales Tax 257 or 50%
Under votes on Sales Tax 5 or .9%
Thoughts on the above
Percentage of undercounts down across the area – more voters did understand the issue in 2009 then in 2009. I think that it shows that areas did a better job of getting their message out.
From today's News-Gazette:
"It turned out to be no different than when Blagojevich beat Judy Barr Topinka (for governor in 2006)," said Bradfield, who spent about $40,000, most of it his own money, on the campaign. "It wasn't about issues; it wasn't about ethics; it was about D (Democrat) and R (Republican)."
Or it could've been that the people didn't see the issues the same way he did, didn't like his message, didn't like his delivery, or a myriad of other reasons other than party affiliation. But sure, let's go ahead and burn that bridge with the people by calling them party lemmings. That'll help with your name recognition. It's like he's taking lessons from the Rob McColley Finishing School for Political Campaigns. Also, congrats on comparing your electability to be on par with someone who couldn't beat Blagojevich in a three-way race with a liberal third-party candidate who pulled 10% of the vote away from the Democratic candidate, even while the clouds of political corruption swirled around said Democratic candidate.
He said his campaign commissioned a poll in March that showed Prussing with 54 percent of the vote and himself with 33 percent, almost the exact outcome of Tuesday's election. "That was when I had 20 percent name recognition" and before most of his campaign advertisements, including his "Bradfield means jobs" campaign, began to air, Bradfield said. "The numbers never moved a penny because it was D and R," he said.
One would think that such a poll would be commissioned much earlier than a month before the election, when most people have their minds made up on who they'll vote for. I can't imagine how even larger of a defeat it would have been had he not been first on the ballot. Perhaps the margin would be 25% instead of 21%.
He said he believes all the money he spent on the campaign will likely pay off in increased name recognition."I gave it my best shot," he said. "I hope people appreciate I ran an honorable and honest campaign."
While I respect him for having the cojones to run for office, "honorable and honest" is not a phrase I would attribute to his campaign. His borderline crackpot theories on ethics violations, the hypocrisy on running an "anonymous" attack site while at the same time complaining about anonymous attacks being orchestrated by the opposition. I could go on and on, but at least now we'll have a couple more years of folksy anecdotes before he decides to lose another race.
NG stories:
Lanesskog won a seat on the Champaign school board by just three votes over the fourth-place candidate, Lynn Stuckey. But because the county clerk's office had 15 provisional ballots to consider and late-arriving absentee ballots to count, the final canvass of votes won't happen for another two weeks.
As he was being congratulated Tuesday night, Lanesskog told a well-wisher, "Hold off on that for a couple of weeks."
Incumbent David Tomlinson, the current school board president, and Tommy Lockman were the top two vote-getters, with 4,935 and 3,730 votes, respectively. Lanesskog received 2,675 and Stuckey received 2,672.
The tax will take effect July 1. Districts will begin receiving revenue from it in October.
The tax could generate $18 million for capital improvements, according to the Champaign-Ford Regional Office of Education. Districts can use the money for construction, renovation, maintenance and repairs, energy-efficiency work, or paying off building-bond debt.
"I think the mayor and the city council did a good job and the public recognized it," Prussing said. "That's what you're seeing."
Prussing estimated she spent about $15,000 on her campaign, about half of what Bradfield said he would be spending. Prussing said she wasn't worried about the disparity.
"I'm a good budgeter," she said. "You're seeing fiscal conservatism at work."
Kyles said Tuesday that he changed strategy after the primary.
"I went to the Republican Party," he said. "I know it's nonpartisan, but I said, 'I need help.' I formed an unofficial team. We never met all together in one room, but we met by e-mail. I divvied up the tasks and I tried to make every task easy. For a week I'd say, 'Go knock on 60 doors.' And I did that with every precinct" with a group of five volunteers.
City of Champaign Township Supervisor:
Borowski, a real estate agent, credited her win to her stand against a property-tax increase to help fund expanded general assistance to the poor in Champaign. She said she would search out grants and other sources of revenue before supporting a tax increase for "as long as I possibly can."
There were 2,868 yes votes to 1,995 no votes – a margin of 59 percent to 41 percent.
The measure will increase the park district tax rate from 69.5 cents per $100 of assessed value to about 84.5 cents per $100 of assessed value, depending on the district's total assessed value. For owners of a $100,000 home assessed properly at one-third market value, the increase will raise property taxes by about $50 per year.
Williams defeated Lewis 807 to 690, with Evans garnering 553 votes and Sumner getting 94 votes.
Williams said he plans on emphasizing economic development during his third term.
"There's no doubt that improving the local economy will be our priority over the four years," Williams said. "We want to support our existing businesses to retain jobs. We want to help our businesses to grow, and we want to attract new businesses to provide more jobs for our outstanding citizens."
Also Urbana Council and Cornbelt Fire Protection District. The DI has their roundup here. The local TV stations also did stories last night, as did WILL.
It was great to see all of my media friends at Brookens last night, and they did a great job - especially WDWS - working through the problems in the vote tallying and reporting last night.
I can't be at Brookens tonight, but I'm going to live-blog the results as best I can from home. Hopefully County Clerk Mark Shelden will keep the website updates coming.
The local races in which I had the most interest were the Countywide Sales Tax, the Urbana Mayor's race, the Champaign Unit 4 School Board races and the City of Champaign Council and Township Supervisor's races. But feel free to use this thread to discuss anything related to the 2009 election you want. I'll be posting periodic updates as the results trickle in.
Thanks to everyone who campaigned and volunteered. And good luck to all the candidates tonight.
Results will be posted here.
8:48 PM: Still no results posted online.
11:57 PM: Sorry for the lack of updates. I got frustrated with the lack of information on the Clerk's website, and so I went to Brookens to track the numbers by hand.
Unofficial Final canvass results are here.
Highlights:
I haven't talked to County Clerk Mark Shelden about the problems with vote counting and the website, so I'm going to reserve comment until I do.
All in all, this was another great Election Day. As I'm fond of saying, we get exactly the government we deserve, and for those who won office today, now comes the hard part.
When did you vote, in which precinct, and what ballot number were you?
I've heard estimates of 15 to 20 percent turnout today. Any guesses?
UPDATE 11:10 AM: From the DI:
Polling booths at Snyder Hall were quiet this morning as Champaign County’s spring elections got underway.
As of 9:45 a.m., the location had received no voters, a poll worker said.
Students said they were not interested in the election and did not plan to vote.
“I just don’t know anything about any of the people,” said Amy Holmstrom, freshman in LAS.
UPDATE 11:50 AM: Comments turned back on. Sorry.
UPDATE: 1:11 PM: I voted at lunch, and I was #276 in the combined City of Champaign 33/38 polling place. My friend just voted in CC 24 at 1 PM and was #314.
Republican Pam Borowski, a broker at Coldwell Banker Devonshire Realty and a real estate instructor, said she opposes increasing property taxes to expand general assistance.
Her Democratic opponent, D'Anne Winston, who has served as an accountant in the township supervisor's office for two years, says she supports an increase.
"I'm going to be in the audience at the town meeting," she said, "and I will support it."
Speaking only for myself, I will not support a tax increase for an office that has been unwilling and unable to demonstrate how they're spending the money they currently receive.
Please vote Borowski for Township Supervisor.
(UPDATED to clarify that I'm speaking for myself, not for Pam Borowski.)
Here are my election predictions for the races I'm following. Please note that these are not necessarily my hopes, just what I think the results will be.
Urbana Mayor
Prussing: 47%
Bradfield: 37%
Kruse: 13%
McColley: 3%
Urbana Ward 2
Gehrig: 60%
Mallon: 40%
Urbana Ward 3
Lewis: 90%
Couture: 10%
Urbana Ward 6
Stevenson: 55%
Langendorf: 45%
Urbana Ward 7
Marlin: 55%
Storm: 33%
Johnson: 12%
Urbana Park District
Yes: 52%
No: 48%
Countywide Schools Sales Tax Increase
No: 51%
Yes: 49%
Those are my best guesses. They're probably worth about $0.00, but maybe as high as $0.02. Share your own predictions below.
I'd like to believe Urbana doesn't vote reflexively for whoever has (D) beside his name, but even Rod Blagojevich won Urbana while losing Champaign Co. in a landslide. I'd bet money Sarah Palin would carry Urbana if a wacky mishap placed (D) beside her name. Laurel Prussing's refusal to support Mike Kelleher and Al Gore in 2000 isn't about to hurt her in 2009.
Which leads me to my question. What percentage will each mayoral hopeful draw tomorrow? Whoever comes the closest can call me nasty names or something.
Bradfield (R) 32%
Prussing (D) 41%
Kruse (G) 23%
McColley (I) 4%
The NG article about yesterday's candidate forum:
The candidates generally agreed on a variety of issues:
– They said fixing the aging buildings in the district was a priority, and they advocated work to improve energy efficiency of the buildings.
– Several said the consent decree needs to end, but the district must continue to monitor equity issues and keep in place programs that will help eliminate the achievement gap between student groups.
– They were generally supportive of the concept of charter schools, but said such a school is not necessary in Champaign unless it could be shown the district is not meeting the needs of some students.
– Most said they would not support just one high school for the district, because it would be too large.
– All the potential board members said they would not be a rubber stamp for the district's administration. Current board President David Tomlinson noted he's voted against a number of recommendations, and the board often has votes that are not unanimous. Candidate Lynn Stuckey said she has no problem questioning decisions at board meetings.
The NG also endorsed incumbent President Dave Tomlinson and newcomers Stig Lanesskog and Tommy Lockman today.
I received a political flyer in the mail today from Chad Coit. The postal permit used to mail the flyers belonged to the Mahomet Chamber of Commerce. Since when does a Chamber of Commerce fund political campaigns? How will he spend your tax dollars if elected?
From today's News-Gazette:
Prussing, a former county auditor, brings to her job a solid understanding of financial issues, a long record of working with the public and an enthusiasm for policy-making and the day-to-day operations of government. She works well with the city council, has worked hard to attract tax-revenue generating businesses to Urbana, kept her pledge to hire more police officers to address crime issues and cracked down on landlords whose run-down properties can become a source of municipal problems.
Even the conservative News-Gazette believes that Prussing is the best candidate running and has done a good job. It is rare that I and they agree, so the occasion seemed worth a blog post. They of course had their issues with her, but it didn't change the outcome.
Discuss.
Sometimes the NG endorsements make me scratch my head.
There is one stark difference between Borowski and Winston. Borowski said she opposes any plan to put another property tax increase to a vote while Winston said she not only would support a tax hike request but believes the township should expand its welfare services, a position both we and the voters have rejected in the past. Borowski said she also favors keeping better track of how township welfare recipients spend the money they receive while Winston said there already is adequate oversight and that increased monitoring would drive up costs.
Somehow, despite the "one stark difference," the NG endorses the person who is fundamentally opposed to them on the most important issue facing the office.
Pam Borowski is a friend of mine, and I'm voting for her precisely because she doesn't work in the current office and because her priorities are to more efficiently and accountably serve the clients and taxpayers of the Township. I hope you'll vote for Pam Borowski as well.
From Champaign County Clerk Mark Shelden's blog:
The City of Champaign Township also failed to hold a lottery and will be conducting one tomorrow at 8:30. As with the City of Urbana, we will suspend early voting with the guidelines as stated below.
The City Clerk also misspelled the name of the GOP candidate for Township Supervisor, Pam Borowski.
I blogged my statement to the press this morning and have put up the options for Urbana voters that hopefully can work for everyone.
Someone emailed me the website for Lynn Stuckey, running for Unit 4 School Board, and asked that I post it. I'm happy to, but wanted to ask at the same time for websites or information about the other candidates for Unit 4. Please email them to me or post them in comments, and I'll add them to this post as they come in.
While we're at it - what questions would you like to ask the field of candidates running for Unit 4 Board?
And please use this thread to discuss the upcoming Unit 4 School Board election. Thanks!
UPDATE: Bumped with the updates. Tommy Lockman has a website here. Stig Lanesskog and Victor Mullins have a flier here.
UPDATE (3-27): Bumped with more updates:
UPDATE (3-30): Candidate forum upcoming:
Community members will have the chance to find out this week, at a candidate forum hosted by the Champaign PTA Council. The forum will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Mellon Administrative Center, 703 S. New St., C.
The Champaign school board has three open seats, and seven candidates are running for those seats. All seven have committed to being at the forum, said Nancy Hoetker, president of the PTA Council.
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